Taking a stroll through your average city shopping precinct will see you bombarded with a plethora of advertising messages. Making their particular message cut through the visual noise can be a tough prospect for advertisers and plain old billboards and static signs just don’t seem to cut the mustard anymore. Those looking to grab people’s attention might want to take a look at 3M’s Vikuiti Rear Projection Film, which can be laminated onto transparent glass or plastic to act as an eye-catching rear projection screen.

The film can be cut into any shape and applied to a transparent substrate with removable optical adhesive that minimizes reflections at the interface between the film and the substrate. This produces a display that is optically superior to a separate display behind a transparent surface and allows video, static images and dynamic messages to be projected onto the surface that are high contrast and offer wide viewing angles, even in daylight. It also offers lifelike color rendition and XGA, SXGA and UXGA resolution compatibility.

The Vikuiti Rear Projection Film works by combining the focusing power of an optical lens with a black light-absorbing layer to produce high contrast images. Millions of microscopic glass beads focus the projected light so it exits as just one small point. The black layer then absorbs the ambient light, producing a high contrast image. The film is also easily removable and the adhesive leaves no messy residue. And since it can be applied to rigid clear acrylic panels its use isn’t limited to shop windows, it can also by used to create portable displays.

The Rear Projection Film is part of 3M’s Vikuiti line of optical enhancing products, which includes reflective polarizers, projection screens, display protection films and anti-reflection films for LCD displays.

The 3M Vikuiti Rear Projection Film isn’t cheap however, with a 60” 16:9 piece costing more than USD$500 – and that’s not counting the cost of a projector.

But the results are definitely eye-catching. Check out this video taken at the International Stationery and Office Products Fair in Tokyo. It shows the film applied to a 3-millimeter thick glass substrate cut into the shape of a woman – and note the projector behind her.

Darren's love of technology started in primary school with a Nintendo Game & Watch Donkey Kong (still functioning) and a Commodore VIC 20 computer (not still functioning). In high school he upgraded to a 286 PC, and he's been following Moore's law ever since. This love of technology continued through a number of university courses and crappy jobs until 2008, when his interests found a home at Gizmag.

Rear projection screens are very common now.This 3M Vikuiti Rear Projection Film is just awesome.I am saying it by my own experience.We can apply it to any clear surface.It has very good visual performance even in high ambient light conditions.